Are Your Sperm In Trouble?

The New York Times recently ran an article entitled Are Your Sperm In Trouble? and they concluded that yes, indeed, our sperm are in trouble. The article notes that in the past 75 years “there’s been a decrease not only in sperm numbers, but also in their quality and swimming capacity, their ability to deliver the goods.”

The article goes on to posit that much of the blame for our sperm woes is due to a class of chemicals known as endocrine disruptors found in plastics, cosmetics, pesticides and many other products.

​That’s right, walnuts. The shelled nuts, which coincidentally are roughly the same size and shape as the prostate gland, are a rich source of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). Research conducted on mice has shown that walnuts help reduce lipid peroxidation, one of the main causes of sperm defects.There is also promising human research. In a study from 2012, authors hypothesized that adding walnuts to a standard Western diet would improve sperm quality. Healthy men aged 21-35 years old were randomized into two groups, a control group who consumed their standard diet, and the test group who added 75 grams of walnuts per day.After 12 weeks, the researchers found that the men who consumed walnuts experienced improvement in sperm vitality, motility, and morphology, compared to the control group who saw no change.

Walnuts For Sperm Quality

Although more research is warranted, it appears that adding a few handfuls of raw walnuts to your daily diet can help improve sperm quality.